Shamblog: Shambo to the slaughter

Shambo, the sacred Hindu bullock with bovine TB, is due to be taken for slaughter this morning, but the Welsh authorities will have to break up a religious ceremony to get him. Follow what happens here. The monks and Shambo supporters are still chanting.

The Shambo saga finally appears to be very close to its end. Government officials have entered his pen and police have formed a human corrider to an animal trailer waiting nearby to take the bullock away for slaughter.

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7.45am

Shambo, the sacred Hindu bullock with bovine TB, is due to be taken for slaughter this morning, but the Welsh authorities will have to break up a religious ceremony to get him. Follow what happens here.

Shambo's webcam, or MooTube as it has become known, shows him standing to the right of his pen, with a pink garland around his neck.

There is no sign yet of the Welsh government's vets and officials. The Skanda Vale Hindu monks who revere the six-year-old Friesian, have been praying outside the pen all morning. They say that if the authorities want to take away Shambo they will have to break up the ceremony and desecrate the temple to do so.

8.30am

Still no sign of the vets. According to Radio Wales there has been music and prayers celebrating the sanctity of life for an hour now.

There is a packed crowd of around 100 people, including media, amid lots of incense. Shambo's supporters say they will not use force to prevent Shambo being taken away, but they will "stand in the way" of officials.

Shambo himself has shuffled to the left of his straw-lined pen ... then back to the right.

Chanting at Skanda Vale, near Camarthen, continues. The vets are late. Shambo has not been taken out, so to speak. He is now lying down in his pen.

Shambo's supporters have locked the gate to the remote community and blocked the lane with a parked car.

8.50am

The vets have arrived and the monks have gone to greet them. The music has got faster and the mood changed.

The vets are at the gate, which is about 50 metres from Shambo's pen. They have come with officials and a police escort. The monks have said they will open the gate when asked. There is one vet, three inspectors and police.

But there's no sign of any cattle truck to take Shambo away.

8.55am

The saga continues. The party of officials doesn't have the correct paperwork, so they have turned back. Shambo, it seems, is going to live just a little longer.

They didn't have a warrant, and have gone away to get one.

9.05am

While the officials get their red tape right, here's some background. Shambo was due to be slaughtered in May after he was exposed to bovine TB. There then followed a three-month legal battle. Earlier this month a court in Cardiff said the Welsh assembly could not slaughter Shambo. But that decision was overturned earlier this week by the court of appeal.

Apparently the officials could not get a warrant until they had been refused entry. That's why they didn't come with a cattle truck. They have driven off to a magistrates court to get the warrant.

Welsh Assembly member Peter Black has given up live-blogging the event, and is getting on with his day. We're still going.

9.30am

Thanks for all your comments below. Sorry if some of you think this is all too trivial for the Guardian to be covering, but as noted in earlier posts, this case has sparked worldwide interest, and you did all click on it.

9.40am

Radio Wales is playing the Beautiful South. So this next bit comes from PA. Chief Inspector Ian John has been explaining what happened at the gate. He said: "The officials will go away to get a warrant, then we will be in discussion with them about the next steps to take."

One of the Skanda Vale monks, Brother Alex, said: "We are not protesting, we are worshipping God. This is about the freedom of human beings to express their religious values. We are simply determined to do our duty, no more, no less than that. We can't be party to the destruction of life."

9.50am

Radio Wales has been playing Buffalo Soldier, while we wait for the vets to return with their warrant and cattle truck.

10.15am

The Govardhan Charitable Trust, an Indian-based charity, has sent a letter today to the Welsh assembly in a last-ditch attempt to save Shambo. It says: "We are deeply concerned, perturbed and feel hurt at the prospect of [the] slaughter of Shambo the temple bull ... he can be fully cured and saved. He is already kept in isolation for the last few months and is not mixing with other animals and thus not a potential hazard to the meat animals and consequently the food chain."

The charity goes on to offer to take care of Shambo in India. It urges the Welsh authorities to follow the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and spare Shambo's life.

10.25am

For Phaine's benefit, the webcam now shows that Shambo has moved to the front of his pen.

"Hindus from around the world picket Skanda Vale, slaughter vets are turned away for not having a warrant, monks say the only way the authorities will get at the divine domesticated ungulate in question is over their praying bodies. Will the police have to intervene? If so will they bring riot shields? Go on, it could hardly make the situation any more ridiculous than it is!"

10.35am

The Welsh authorities are worried that Shambo is getting stressed out by all the fuss. A spokeswoman said: "We are monitoring the situation at Skanda Vale very carefully this morning and are very concerned that the bullock may be getting distressed by the noise and activity around him. Our concern has always been to minimise distress to the animal throughout this sensitive operation. We appeal to the community and the media to facilitate this by allowing our staff to get on with their work."

10.45am

Over at The People's Republic of Newport they think Shambo should die. David LL says common sense is finally prevailing.

10.50am

The vet and officials are on their way back ... with a warrant.

11.00am

W Mathias, a reader on the Swansea Evening Post's site, says: "The rules are there to protect everyone and farmers who lose their living do not complain but abide by the rules."

For the bullock-spotters out there, those tags on Shambo's ear read: 742266 200001.

The Ottawa Citizen says the Shambo saga has become an "unlikely flashpoint for the accommodation of religion in Britain".

11.10am

Phil Caldicott has been having fun with Photoshop. He depicts Shambo as Rambo. Someone had to do it.

The Pleasure of the Harbour has rewritten Shambo's last stand as a spaghetti western.

11.20am

SajiniW on Pickled Politics says Shambo should be treated as a pet not as livestock. The post says: "Temple well-wishers have offered to pay for medical TB treatment, which is an option the owners of other cows culled didn't have. I'd like to know why the Assembly are reluctant to try this option, given that Shambo is kept in isolation and isn't going to be used for meat/milk production like the vast majority of cows killed were?"

11.30am

Citizen Wintz offers to kill Shambo himself. He says the story embodies "everything that is idiotic about religion", and asks "what about my right to life?", adding, "Shambo is a health hazard".

11.35am

The link to the Shambo webcam seems to have crashed under the weight of traffic.

11.40am

India eNews reckons that people have come to Skanda Vale from as far away as Switzerland and even New Zealand.

12.05pm

Shambo has lived to see another afternoon. That Welsh government team is still on the way with their warrant.

12.20pm

"There's no alternative" to slaughter for Shambo, says Dai Davies the president of the National Farmer Union of Wales. "I'm pleased that the law is being upheld," he told Radio Wales. "This is not a day for celebration. The day for celebration is when we eradicate TB from this country."

Still no word on the slaughter team, but apparently they have got their warrant from Camarthen magistrates court. The Welsh assembly is not saying where they plan to take Shambo after he is seized.

12.30pm

Dai Davies says they will kill Shambo with a lethal injection, not a bolt to the head.

A sub-discussion seems to be going on, not on the fate of Shambo, but on what's happening with the webcam. Windtalon says it is back now but slow.

1pm

Radford Mann on Labourhome says we are getting all goey over Shambo and that he must die partly because it is unreasonable to keep herd animals in isolation.

There's now some doubt about whether Camarthen magistrates court has actually issued the warrant. The latest news is that the slaughter team are still trying to obtain a warrant.

1.40pm

I'm back from lunching on fish soup (not beef) and things are apparently moving on the Shambo front. There's a rumour that officials are back with their warrant. More on that soon ...

In the meantime Keith Porteous Wood, head of the National Secular Society, accuses the Skanda Vale monks of "putting religious dogma before the welfare of the community".

He says: "This bull poses a potential threat to the health of many thousands of animals and even to people. The court has ruled that the bull must be slaughtered and the law must prevail."

1.50pm

The officials are back but they are struggling to get through the chanting and defiant crowd. The vet and the officials have gone back to their cars to consider the next move. They say they won't kill Shambo at the temple, but want to take him away for slaughter.

2pm

The officials are still mulling it over. Meanwhile, everyone seems to have a definite view on whether Shambo should live or die. Everyone, that is, except the former environment secretary David Miliband. It's a tricky issue he says, but it's one for the Welsh.

2.10pm

Still we wait for more news. While we do DII_Contents on Idle Time is suspicious about why MooTube is still unavailable.

2.30pm

The human shield protecting Shambo is holding strong. The officials don't know how to get around it. They may now get police reinforcements, according to BBC News 24.

But they have obtained, and now served, their warrant on the Skanda Vale community. No one would take the document so it was taped to the door of the temple. It confirms that the officials do have the right to take Shambo away for slaughter. But the question is how? They have to get through the human shield of chanting supporters, remove an altar in front of Shambo and get him through a locked gate. This could run for a little longer yet.

A spokeswoman for the Welsh assembly says they are not going into the logistics of the operation, but will get back to me with any more details if she can. She did say she's following this blog.

2.50pm

ShamboShambles' ballad of Shambo reminds me that the writer Michael Morpurgo wrote a brilliant Shambo fable for the Today programme. The Western Mail has reprinted it here.

3.10pm

It now emerges that the warrant gives the officials a whole month to take away Shambo. Surely it won't last that long.

In case you missed it here's Steve Bell's Shambo take on David Cameron.

Richard Moore, via email, writes: "Surely Shambo is in line to be reincarnated. Perhaps as a Carmarthen Magistrate? Have the slaughter team not heard of karma?"

3.35pm

Gangeticus from the US is following events in Camarthenshire. Posting on Ganges is My Spring of Life he says: "As a vegetarian myself (and a Hindu), the death of any life is abhorrent to me, but this case is the worst."

3.40pm

Officials are "taking advice" on what to do next. Will they storm the temple? Or will they leave it for a few days and hope the supporters go away?

4.15pm

According to this on the Debatable Land the fact that the Guardian is liveblogging Shambo is proof that the British love animals more than people. Mr Eugenides has a nice Shambo post tagged "Britain" and "Gallows Humour". It's been picked up by a Jewish community site in the states.

Police have returned and used bolt cutters to get access to the farm, BBC Wales reports. They are now removing people from temple area.

5.10pm

The Press Association is reporting the following:

A group of 20 police officers marched in and surrounded the temple after cutting the chain which had secured the gates. Some of those who had gathered to worship in front of Shambo had to be dragged and carried from the scene by officers after refusing to leave.

6.15pm

Police have entered the pen where Shambo has been kept. Press at the scene are saying they are being kept back by a line of officials and cannot see what is going on. The "MooCam" reports that Shambo has been seized. This is the last image of the condemned bullock, taken at 5.45pm.

Sarah Moore, reporting for BBC Radio Wales says it is "all going slowly but is being carried out very calmly and with dignity on both sides".

6.40pm

The BBC says police have formed a human corridor between Shambo's pen and a livestock trailer and Shambo is being led out. His fate finally appears to be sealed.

6.50pm

The MooCam, while still declaring that Shambo has been taken away, is now showing images of the animal in his pen. Men dressed in what appear to be biochemical suits and gas masks are at the door. Hopefully it will soon become clearer whether this is live or recorded footage.

7.20pm

The door on the pen has been partly removed by men in hard hats and the webcam now shows that Shambo has gone. BBC News 24 says he is being loaded onto the trailer, to the continuing sounds of chanting and bell-ringing in the background. That would appear to be the end of a very long, somewhat unusual and sometimes Shambolic, day of events at Skanda Vale.

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